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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26515660">Break My Heart</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheFireInHerEyes/pseuds/TheFireInHerEyes'>TheFireInHerEyes</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, The Avengers - Ambiguous Fandom</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst and Fluff and Smut, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Bucky Barnes Feels, Bucky Barnes Needs a Hug, Bucky Barnes Remembers, Cheating, Drama &amp; Romance, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Implied/Referenced Cheating, Monogamy, Post-Serum Steve Rogers, Protective Bucky Barnes, Steve Rogers is Not a Virgin, Winter Soldier Bucky Barnes</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 03:41:08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,529</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26515660</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheFireInHerEyes/pseuds/TheFireInHerEyes</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>His reputation was worldwide, his influence stretching across generations and all social classes.</p>
<p>The world knew him as Captain America, the first Avenger and super soldier of the 40’s who crashed into the ice.</p>
<p>You knew him as Steven Grant Rogers, the man you were committed to for 2 years, who was now your ex.</p>
<p>After he ended the relationship by choosing another woman over you, you were smacked in the face by the reality of your relationship.</p>
<p>His expectations for you were often unmet, which led to arguments; fights.</p>
<p>You could never be good enough for him. So he moved on to someone who could be.</p>
<p>Where Steve made you feel good enough, Bucky made you feel like you were perfect.</p>
<p>But after being in a relationship with Steve for two years, and being so used to the quirks or the subtle jabs about your ordinance, it was hard to adjust to the idea that someone was really, truly as mystified by you as you were them.</p>
<p>Still…despite all that, you were waiting for Bucky to break your heart like Steve had.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>James "Bucky" Barnes &amp; Reader, James "Bucky" Barnes &amp; Steve Rogers &amp; Reader, James "Bucky" Barnes/Original Female Character(s), James "Bucky" Barnes/Reader, Sharon Carter &amp; Steve Rogers, Sharon Carter/Steve Rogers</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>56</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Prologue</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Steve Rogers will be an asshole in this series. He will be mostly out of character for the point of the plot.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Maybe if I set it on fire?” That was the first statement/question that fell from your lips as you stared at the pile of glossy magazines sitting on the coffee table of your one bedroom apartment.</p><p>On the front of the magazines was a picture of your ex-boyfriend, who you’d been in a relationship with for 2 years, and his new girlfriend. The headlines boasted about his new love, and the work they’d been doing in protecting the city from the bad guys.</p><p>In different words, and with you reading between the lines, they were celebrating Steve Roger’s beautifully statuesque girlfriend and her amazing career as a SHIELD agent.</p><p>All while you were stewing in your resentment and disaster for the man you had grown to know as anything but perfect. Despite the magazines and gossip channels, the endless forums dedicated to Steve’s perfect ass and abs, you knew the truth.</p><p>Yes, he was a gentlemen. Yes, he was chivalrous and charming.</p><p>But he was also a perfectionist and that led to quite a few arguments between you two, mostly circulated around your imperfections. Your inability to meet his every changing standards and hopes for you.</p><p>“I could use them as a dartboard.” You picked up one of the magazines and flipped through the pages, seeing the images flash before your eyes.</p><p>He broke your heart. Steve Rogers broke your heart when he chose another woman over you.</p><p>Two years gone down the toilet; two years of your life spent trying to be someone he wanted.</p><p>You came upon his picture next to hers, a brilliant smile that was once reserved for you plastered on his face. His arm was around her waist, holding her tightly against his body leaving no space between them.</p><p>“Screw you.” You ripped their picture straight from the magazine and crumpled it in your hands.</p><p>If only they all knew what kind of man lay beyond the mirage…</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>He was charming. He was dazzling and charismatic.</p><p>And his face was goddamn everywhere. Almost everywhere you looked, you were reminded of the man who stole your heart with a tiny little tug at the strings, and the woman who would eventually take your place.</p><p>Everywhere you looked, you were reminded that your relationship of two years had ended in a way that left you bitter and angry, resentful. While Steve had already moved on to a woman who was so unnaturally beautiful and sensual, it made you seem as if you’d been carved from a pile of molding clay.</p><p>His new girlfriend, that he left you so easily for, was everything you weren’t. She was an agent of SHIELD, who knew at least 4 different languages and was able to kick ass and keep up with the non-magical avengers like it was as easy as inhaling oxygen.</p><p>She was a bad-ass, kick-ass woman and that appealed to Steve. Someone who appealed to Steve, someone who would get up with him at the crack of dawn and run 10 miles before breakfast.</p><p>You hated running on your days off before 10 am. You enjoyed sleeping in and stretching out in your bed when you weren’t being pulled from one job to the next.</p><p>When Steve had suggested you run together when you were dating, you agreed because it was a good way to exercise without paying for a gym membership. What you had misunderstood, was Steve’s intentions to get up at the crack of dawn and run until you felt like your lungs were turning to ash in your chest.</p><p> Your eagerness to get up in the morning and run with him, had dwindled down rather quickly after the first fee morning’s.</p><p>While Steve got up with an unnatural pep in his step, you groaned and grumbled. You dug yourself further into the blankets to hide from the beaming sun and the radiating joy Captain America got from getting outside to run.</p><p>After you had denied him a running partner for the morning, and insisted on sleeping, he called you lazy. He tried to pass it off as a joke, a manner or sarcastic wit that went over your head.</p><p>That was the first of many jabs that dug into your skin.</p><p>It wasn’t that you and Steve hadn’t loved each other, because you had. You were in a relationship for two years, and in those two years you and Steve had some amazing moments in your small place.</p><p>But equal to the terrific moments were also moments in your relationship that made you feel like complete shit. You had blamed yourself for those moments, had blamed yourself for not meeting the standards that Steve was used to.</p><p>If you decided to go out for the day with him, the odd days when he was entirely free, if you put on a pair of comfortable sweats and a larger-than-needed hoodie, Steve would question your choice.</p><p>He wouldn’t outwardly come off as rude, though he would give you a look that you quickly came to realize was displeasure.</p><p>Again, you had blamed yourself.</p><p>You told yourself that he was raised in a generation where women would actively dress up to do anything, and even more so to please their significant others. With a few exceptions, and you figured that it was this expectation that he held for you.</p><p>You loved Steve despite the arguments and the jabs at your laziness in the mornings and after a long shift at your jobs, you shrugged off the comments made about your forgetfulness.</p><p>You vowed to be better, to do better. It was never enough, and your shortcomings had driven Steve away.</p><p>Right into the arms of Sharon Carter, a woman who was, apparently, your superior in every way.</p><p>At the end of the tunnel, after the 2 year relationship had crumbled and you were left exhausted and drained from trying so damn hard, your heart was shattered.</p><p>If that wasn’t damaging enough, everywhere you turned your had seemed to find Steve’s smiling face displayed on some magazine. The headlines and articles talking about Captain Rogers’ impeccable reputation as the hero that America needed.</p><p>All the while you were left blanching at every turn. You were left to stew in the differences that only you seemed to know about. The truths that Captain America was far from perfect, far from the Golden boy that many girls and women fantasized about.</p><p>Because when it came down to the wire, the absolute blaring truth was that at his core, Steve Rogers was shallow.</p><p>He was courageous and brave and self-sacrificing.</p><p>But he was shallow.</p><p>At his core, he could’ve been mistaken for the Grand-fucking-Canyon.</p><p>♡♡ ♡♡</p><p>Your alarm blaring beside your head was expected though it didn’t help make it any less grating. The blaring of your alarm might as well have been stiletto nails on a chalkboard writing lines.</p><p>The moment you opened your eyes and they had adjusted to the light, you knew that the day would not be the kind of day that you could mark down as a particularly good one.</p><p>You could just feel it in your bones. Before you had even left the bed, you wanted to dive back in and shut out the world. However the blaring alarm to your right, and your neighbours arguing upstairs had prevented you from shutting your eyes again.</p><p>As you slowly peeled yourself from your bedsheets and sat upright, your hand shot out from under the covers and turned the alarm off rather forcefully.</p><p>With one less noise to irritate, you finally got out of your bed and started shuffling toward the bathroom in your small place. You flicked on the light and winced as the sharp and bright lights hit your eyes in just the right spot.</p><p>After you had time to adjust to the light and you had washed the sleep from your eyes, you pat a worn towel against your face and shuffled back to your bedroom.</p><p>You didn’t move toward the bed, but rather the dresser. You opened the top drawer and dug around for your waitress uniform. The vintage style dress was one of two uniforms you had for waitressing, and of the two, this was by far your least favourite.</p><p>The skirt was a little too tight around your hips and a tad too short in the hemline. The buttons of the bust had strained to keep together, and had been sewed on numerous times.</p><p>It would’ve been a cute uniform if it had been back in the 50’s when the dress was in style. But as it stood, having a 50’s dress in 2025 was not the most flattering.</p><p>Or needed.</p><p>Still, that hadn’t changed the fact that you needed to get dressed and leave your apartment before you were late again. Your dislike of the dress hadn’t changed the fact that you still needed a steady job with tips, and you still had to be able to afford rent and food.</p><p>You didn’t have a famous Avenger boyfriend anymore to constantly remind you of your shortcomings.</p><p>You had to do that all on your own now.</p><p>And it started with the dress.</p>
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